The Lakers Coming in: One game into the Ramon Sessions era and so far, so good. The Lakers picked up their 5th straight win and their new addition contributed with his speed, ability to set up his mates, and his feel for the game. As this team moves forward it will be important to not only integrate a key player but to continue to evolve as a group and better refine their schemes to raise their games even further. And for all the hand wringing surrounding Mike Brown, achieving this certainly looks possible. Over the past few weeks the Lakers have shown greater comfort on offense, seen Bynum continue to grow his game, and had Kobe continue to play at a high level.

As an aside, what’s gone mostly unsaid about the Lakers with all the change after the trade deadline is that Pau Gasol is still with the team. In Friday’s game, he definitely looked relieved and seemed to play with a clearer mind. He moved well around the court, was aggressive when he caught the ball, and just looked better. As with Sessions, a one game sample doesn’t automatically create a trend for the future, but it was good to see Pau play unburdened. If that continues, the Lakers may have picked up another player at the trade deadline: an invigorated Spaniard.

The Jazz Coming in: The Jazz are 3-2 in their last 5 games but have still – even if only temporarily – dropped out of the playoff race in the ultra-competitive West. This may actually be the preferred course of action for a young team that’s still rebuilding and trying to sort out their roster into workable pieces that fit together for long term success. They have a logjam in their front court with two high lottery picks (Kanter and Favors) playing behind two good veterans (Millsap and Jefferson), and are still sorting out who their long term answers will be on the wing, with both Gordon Heyward and Alec Burks proving to be inconsistent at these early stages of their careers. Another lottery pick wouldn’t be the worst thing for this team, as it could give them another player that may help their long-term plan to become that perennial playoff team they were with Deron Williams and Jerry Sloan. It’s a painful process to rebuild in this manner, but it could end up being what’s actually needed after this team showed they could not sustain their strong play from earlier in the season.

Keys to game: This will be the 4th and final time these two teams face off this season, and the Lakers have the opportunity to claim the series 3-1 with a win tonight. In the previous three games between these teams, a few trends have developed:

*The Jazz have been very good at attacking the offensive glass, grabbing 18, 10, and 18 offensive rebounds in the three games. In the last game (the lone Jazz win in this series) Millsap had 6 and Jefferson had 4 OReb’s and they’ll need to be closely marked and bodied to keep them from getting extra possessions. Gasol will need to be especially active, as Millsap will lurk on the weak side when shots go up and use his quickness and instincts to move to the ball and secure the rebound. Pau mustn’t get caught watching the ball too much or lose sight of Millsap, or else he’ll find himself chasing the Jazz forward after the rebound is already lost.

*The Jazz have not proven capable of hurting the Lakers from beyond the three-point line in any of the games. They’re 9-39 from behind the arc in the three contests and the Lakers should force them to take the long jumper again and again until they prove they can make those shots. This is especially true with the Jazz’s emphasis on getting points through their post players and with Raja Bell (their best deep shooter) questionable. Dig downs from the guards should be a point of emphasis to bother the Jazz big men, but with LA’s wings still closing out under control back to their shooters to still contest shots.

*Andrew Bynum needs to get his touches against Al Jefferson (should he play) and Derrick Favors. Bynum has the size advantage on both players and in the last Jazz game he scored 21 points on only 14 shots while helping to draw fouls on the Jazz front line. Bynum’s recent play has buoyed the Lakers’ offense and tonight that should continue with some matchups in his favor.

*Kobe’s been great at getting to the FT line against this team by attacking the basket and using his repertoire of fakes and feints to get his defender off balance and draw contact. He should continue that trend tonight, especially if Jefferson plays. When big Al and Millsap are in the game, the Jazz don’t have a big man that can defend the rim and Kobe should use that as incentive to try and get to the paint. If he doesn’t get a good shot right at the front of the rim, he’ll either draw a foul or get one of his big men a good look via an offensive rebound or a dump-off pass, a method of fueling the Lakers’ offense when they don’t simply dump the ball into the post or run their screen actions.

Tonight gives the Lakers a good opportunity to keep their momentum going and continue their push for a strong playoff seed. The Lakers are excellent at home, so the expectation is that they’ll play well — but they must do it on the court and not just expect it to happen. With the added energy of the Sessions deal and the big three showing strong chemistry of late, here’s hoping the good play continues.

Where you can watch: 6:30PM start time on Fox Sports West. Also listen at ESPN Radio 710AM.

Darius Soriano

169 responses to Preview & Chat: The Utah Jazz

I hope MB brings Sessions in at the six-minute mark of the 1st quarter, along with Barnes. That would give him approximately three 1st quarter minutes with the Big 3, until Drew gets subbed out for Murphy or McRoberts (make it the latter sub, MB!). Sessions can also lead our running 2nd unit, with Drew anchoring the middle, vacuuming up rebounds and starting the break with his improved outlet passing, while Sessions, Barnes, Goudelock, and McRoberts run the fast break lanes.

Blake could then get brought back at about the six-minute mark of the 2nd quarter for about three or four minutes, with Sessions at the point for the final two or three minutes of the half. I’d like to see Ramon play close to 30 minutes tonight. Utah had to go into OT last night, so hopefully our guys can build up a cushion, giving the Big 3 some rest and even let Sessions play out garbage time for some extra minutes.

@3 – The only Western contenders that might have a hole at backup PG are OKC (but Harden has been ably handling those duties since Maynor went down) and Memphis. I suppose he could go to Miami if the Heat don’t trust their rookie backup, and Orlando is a remote possibility. My guess is Memphis, as their two backups have been execrable so far this season.

@4 – I think Hill will suit up, as there was a practice yesterday and Fish is now bought out. As for playing time, I’d rather see him out there than Murphy, but you never know. Hopefully we can blow out the Jazz so he at least sees some garbage time.

Edit – There is a family connection with Fish and Memphis as well. Little Rock is pretty close to Memphis.

It needs to be said that the Lakers for the second straight game have an advantage at the PG position. After not having an advantage their for 8 straight years (Gary Payton) the Lake Show have one for two consecutive games Let me to be the first on here to say “Look for the Lakers to attack with their PG (Session’s) to take advantage of his speed and quickness.”

I wonder if Orl is a viable option given the weird politics surrounding that team. I can just imagine the Orl beat writers mocking management for failing to surround Howard with a player like Nash or Monta Ellis… ‘but at least we got Fisher!’

To me, bringing on a player like Fish is a major PR risk for a club that is trying like hell to keep the lid shut on that can of worms.

well, orlando’s gm said a few minutes ago that he liked the roster and wouldn’t add anybody like fisher or turiaf. boston needs big men, so i figure turiaf might wind up there. he’d probably receive PT, which is huge for somebody in a contract year.

I’ll be curious to see if opposing teams’ offensive rebounding statistics drop when Sessions is in the game. After all, why not crash the offensive glass like crazy if the opposing PG isn’t a threat to beat you in transition?

This is just another example of offense and defense being inseparable, not to get all Sacred Hoops on y’all.

@13 – At a minimum, our defensive rebounding rate should see overall improvement because Ramon himself is one of the three or four best rebounding PGs in the league. I also expect our offensive rebounding rate to improve as our bigs gradually adjust to having a penetrating PG as a teammate.

Kapono and Fisher are both being bought out which leaves Walton (who probably will have some value as an expiring contract – something that will be fairly valuable in the next season) as the only guy left.

It’s almost as if Mitch got others to do what he could not – buy people out who aren’t contributing. Anyway, looking forward to Devin vs. Ramon, although maybe only in spurts.

Watching the MIA-ORL game, one thing is crystal clear. D12 is such a terror around the basket on defense, that opposing player miss easy shots they usually make simply for being worried about getting swatted any moment. No other player in the league has this degree of unseen impact in the paint.

With respect to Blake starting, the MB quote I heard after “foreseeable future” was “It might be his job for the rest of the year.” Exactly what I was afraid of in trading for Sessions, but thought the issue would be Fisher, not Blake!

Excited to see what Hill does in his debut tonight.

Will be keeping a close eye on Blake and Sessions to get some game data from which to draw conclusions.

Andrew has really fallen back into bad habits the last couple of games. He was showing some decisiveness against the double-teams in previous games, but against MIN and now tonight–the ball is getting stuck. He has to pass out of the post in those situations, but he is trying to beat the double and triple team for a bucket

I’ve got to say that I like the “running team” (the 2nd unit). Matt Barnes seems like a new player with Sessions on the floor. Having Drew low, Murphy as a stretch 4 and GLock & Barnes on the wings is a nice 2nd unit setup for Sessions to work with.

This is why KB24 is different from other stars right now. 1st=0 pts, 2nd=starting to score, he is so deadly even though he haven’t scored a point in such a period that everybody playing against him feels like he is still a threat out there.

It would be nice to see if Kobe can learn to play off the ball when Sessions is in the game. His usage would go down, and you would think the offense would have more flow. It kind of defeats the purpose of getting Sessions, and takes Sessions out of his comfort zone, if you are going to make him a badly undersized two-guard when Kobe is in.

This is just not Kobe’s day, honestly i dont have a problem with a single shot he has taken today, most have been in the paint, minus some open threes. And Kobe in the paint on his floaters, drives and pull ups is normally money. Hes not forcing anything he is just ice cold

I think it’s the right move. You don’t want to rock the boat. Ramon will end up starting, but by making him “earn” the starting position, it looks better to everyone involved. If Ramon was CP3, then there never would have been a doubt about who would start, but Sessions wasn’t even starting on his own team.

There is nothing wrong with what Brown has said so far. Give the guy a friggen break. We have like the 5 best record in the league and the 3rd best in the west. We will challenge for the second seed with his ‘horrible’ coaching.

Take Kobe’s shooting out the game and the Lakers are shooting 56 percent. You take out Kobe, Goudelock, and Sessions and the Lakers are shooting over 70%. Wow, what a bad shooting night can do to a team.

I don’t get the game since I am in sf so I only saw the stats via espn game cast. Can someone let me know how Kobe goes 3/20? What was his shot selection like and did he defer to Bynum
(12/14) or just continue to lay bricks?

And our starting PG had 0 pts tonight. What other team has a starting PG who scores 0 pts. Yeah, but let’s keep starting Blake.

Turnovers and Kobe’s piss poor shooting killed us tonight. Way to lose to a team that hasn’t won a road game since the Stockton/Malone era. We can’t give away games like this if we want to win the division and get the #2 seed.

This was mostly on Kobe, but the other players need to go away from him when he is forced out of good post position. Don’t force feed him the ball 23 feet away from the basket, reverse the ball and throw it in the post and then run action from there.

The Lakers always have trouble with short, active, physical 4s–Carl Landry, Glen Davis, Reggie Evans. Pau and Drew don’t matchup with guys like that. Millsap is the best of that type of player in the NBA, so it makes sense that he would chew the Lakers up.
Kanter ate them up tonight as well.

That said, this loss of course is mostly on Kobe. 3/20 with 7 TOs was enough to waste a time capsule game from Bynum. Kobe may be getting tired, and remember he is playing with a injured wrist. But that is no excuse. He was terrible tonight.

Sessions was just 1/7, and Glock was 1/5, meaning the Laker guards were 5/33 as a group. Blake was 0/1.

Even at 1/7, Sessions scored 10 points, had 6 ASTs and 0 TOs. I don’t really get why, after seeing Sessions, anyone would think Blake should play more 15 or so MPG.

Well, just when this team was starting to make a statement, they lose to a horrible road team. Can’t really predict what this team is going to do this year, but pretty safe to say they are probably not going to get to the finals, not this year.

I have a post stuck in moderation, But Kobe was 3/20 with 7 TOs. There were other problems, but this loss has to fall in large part on him. No way around it. Millsap is always going to be a bad matchup for the Lakers.

Kevin/rr: No doubt Kobe had a bad game. However we have seen this before + we will see it again. He is what he is. He is great – but he will have games like this. I have no issue with your comments. I only have issue with the ones that either end in a Boston type cheer, or that attribute Kobe’s play to some sinister plot to protest management, + overthrow the entire world : )

I think there’s a difference between Kobe bashing and calling him out for a crappy game. Like you, he’s my favorite player of all time. Nothing will change that, just like nothing he does from here on out will change his legacy as one of the greatest players of all time.

But, with that said, a lot of us aren’t going to hang off his n*ts no matter what he does. When he plays great and does amazing things, which he does more often than he has games like this, I’ll be right there with you praising the crap out of him. But when he has games like this, shooting 3 for 20, with all the turnovers, he deserves to be criticized. Any player does. If Pau shot 3 for 20, I would be all over him too! I mean, c’mon, 3 for 20 is absolute garbage! Especially when Drew was 12 for 14! Some games, you just don’t have it. So is it too much to ask him to recognize that? If you’re going to be off and make only 3 shots, go 3 for 9, not 3 for 20.

But like Kevin said, this loss isn’t entirely on Kobe. Too many turnovers and poor interior D contributed as well. But when your star player has games where he goes 3-20, 8-26, 9-31, well that stands out and plays a big role in the outcome.

Like I said, I’m not bashing Kobe as a player. I’m just pointing out that for this particular game, he stunk up the joint.

I agree. It’s fine to say “Kobe played well” or “Kobe played badly” or whatever else is true. But the psychodrama some people endlessly attach to it is a joke. Kobe didn’t force much tonight; they just didn’t drop. The guy is going to shoot; that is what he is–a scorer.

I wonder if Hill was eligible tonight; he has the quickness to perhaps help against guys like Millsap. Pau and Drew are just too slow. Hill needs a little burn. He is better than McRoberts. Not much better, but a little better.

And Blake should not be getting 27 minutes anymore with Sessions on the team. Knowing the plays and nomenclature is important. So is having the physical ability to get into the paint.

106 Exactly (Kobe can’t play D?). He isn’t engaged defensively that often anymore. I’ve seen him save his breath so often when his turn over or clanked shot leads to a run-out and then, too, his playing centerfield gets us burned so often with what upside exactly? With this D and with his shooting us out of games lately (tho tonight the selection wasn’t so bad), do we question his bb IQ or gravitas?

Was Blake trying to be benched? Zero points and two assists? I would have Blake play back up SG. Start Sessions obviously… Then have GLock back him up. This offense needs guys at PG who can play PnR. Pretty simple.

Besides Bryant just plain sucking in this game. Pau, MWP, Blake all struggled as well. All the older guys had no energy or quickness… this game was just FLAT. This is the kind of game where the coach would have been better served to play the younger guys for longer stretches…

Not much positive to take from this game. Bynum was a beast….on offense. Sessions continues to impress, despite his poor shooting. Ramon played a fine floor game. Drew & Pau need to improve their interior defense. Kobe was terrible and the turnovers were inexcusable. Despite all that, The Show still had a chance to steal back this game. Just a weird game all around.

Bynum was content with having a monster offensive game. Kanter and Milsap destroyed the Lakers bigs in the paint. Bynum and Gasol didn’t even attempt to block a shot tonight.

Additionally, gave up defensive rebounds in crunch time.

Say what you will, but the Lakers missed MWP on defense in the 4th quarter. That’s where he usually causes a turnover, gets a steal that leads to a basket that energizes the Lakers on defense.

Finally, a pg that understands how to pass the ball ahead on offense, that’s the only way to get fastbreak points. Everyone thought Barnes was horrible, but didn’t realize that he wasn’t being used properly.

Early in the season Ebanks ran the floor on offense, yet the Lakers would not pass the ball ahead for him to finish. In the second unit Barnes did the same thing, and often became frustrated.

Raah-mon will start on Tuesday.

Kobe was due a game like tonight. It’s been an emotional season for him, LO getting traded, Fish being traded and a quasi impending divorce. Not worried about Kobe!

anyone that defends Blake starting after this one…well, I don’t know what to say. Keeping track of good plays and bad plays for Blake and Sessions (yes, entirely subjective and biased) the final tally was Blake=Good:1, Bad:9, Sessions=Good:13, Bad:1.

In addition, the team was out of sorts with Blake in and looked much more fluid with Sessions in. Looking at the box score now…Blake-9, Sessions+1

And a big bronx cheer to the overmatched MB who is entirely responsible for this loss. Way to see what you have in Hill, and great idea to play the big 3 each 37 minutes.

On to the next, texas state. blame MB and apply to be the coach. Sessions will start soon just have patience. Before the trade deadline everyone is complaining about FO on having a point guard and some people said here that just be patient. Now, after trade deadline most people wants to start Sessions on Blake. Now, I’ll tell everybody that we need to have patient. It will happen soon.

As we discussed yesterday… The first unit really struggles without a true PG in this offense as Kobe becomes the defacto PG and the ball tends to stop. Again… If Steve Blake was a competent starting PG it would be a no brainer to have Sessions provide energy off the bench. But alas he is not… Just because Session’s would start doesn’t mean he can’t play with that second unit. Bynum is always with that second unit… doesn’t he start?

About kobe’s shooting, yes Kobe was bad tonight, really really, really really, really bad, just an absolute off night. however he only took 20 shots which is actually less than his average on the year. Also thinking back i cant think of any of the shots kobe took that were bad shots, even by normal player standards. The majority were in or around the paint and very few were forced they simply didn’t go in.

Also Kobe took 20 shots and 9 free throws, that accounts to essentially 24 offensive possessions ending in a shot attempt. Bynum took 14 shots and 12 free throws which results in 20 offensive possessions ending in a shot attempt, not exactly a major disparity or an example of Kobe taking shots away from Bynum.